Sermon for the 11th Sunday after Pentecost

So I am a nerd and video taped myself preaching since I never really preach what I write. Let me know what you think.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Accustomed as we are to hearing the words, "This is my body" in the consecration of the sacrament and "The body of Christ" as we receive the host, do we still draw back in surprise at hearing our Lord say "flesh"? Accustomed as we are to hearing the words "The blood of Christ" when we take the chalice, do we still find a murmur rising in our minds as we hear this text: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you"?

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” Pardon me but does this not sound at all a tad STRANGE?” Jesus tells us we must eat his flesh? Now I am no expert on Hebraic laws but aren’t there a few laws that prohibit eating human flesh? No wonder in the next verse that the Jewish authorities question what Jesus is saying. The NRSV, our edition, is a bit tame saying “they disputed among themselves” but in actuality the Greek word shows a great conflict. They are probably stunned that a man of Jesus’ educational background that surely he would know that his statement goes against Hebraic Law. So they question him and they ask, “How can this man, How can you Jesus, a man born of a human mother, brought up in Hebraic Law, give us his flesh to eat, HUMAN FLESH?” I can understand their question because everything they have come to know as true has just been questioned.

How can one eat Human Flesh? It is a question that I and many theologians and Christians have asked themselves for centuries. In hundreds of cultures the idea of cannibalism is seen as taboo and even banned in many cultures. But yet Jesus tells us “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.”

So we have still have this problem of breaking Hebraic law of eating human flesh. How do we get around this? The answer is simple. With God all things are possible. God often takes what is sinful and evil and turns it into something good. For example the execution on the cross; the image of eating flesh and drinking blood; and even us as sinful and evil human beings who have been turned into saintly children of God and a means for spreading the gospel message to the world. With God all things are possible and in God all things are made clean and God.

Okay so we have Jesus’ command and we know that we must do this but how? How are we to eat of Jesus’ flesh and blood if Jesus is not here physically with us? That is where our Eucharistic, our Communion theology, comes into play. The meal that we share is a very mysterious meal. I have always enjoyed the line that my dad begins the worship service with; “As we prepare to celebrate God’s Mysteries this day…” We celebrate God’s mysteries when: we confess our sins and then hear God’s forgiveness for our sins, when we hear God’s word and respond to God’s word with the sermon and when we celebrate communion and have Jesus come to us in the form of bread of wine.

We do not know how, when, or why Jesus comes to us in communion we just have our faith and we cling to that faith that he does come to us in this meal. The Eucharist is life-giving because it is Jesus who gives it, and it is life-giving because it is Jesus himself who is given. Jesus took something that was at one time seen as evil and unclean and turned into something beautiful, amazing and mysterious. We must trust this mysterious wisdom of God.

There is a good story of man questioning God’s wisdom. A man asked God, "What does a billion dollars mean to you who are all powerful?"

"Hardly a penny." God said.

Then the man asked God , "And what are a thousand centuries to you?" God answered "Hardly a second!!"

Thinking he had God backed into a corner, the man then said, "Then if that's the case, O, Lord give me a penny!!"

"Sure," God replied. "In just a minute."

Wisdom isn't outsmarting God, wisdom is living in and with God. Wisdom is being in Christ and surrounded by Christ. Wisdom is eating and drinking from the feast which God has prepared for us.

When we receive communion, it is Jesus himself that abides in us and we in him. We receive life because we receive Jesus. Jesus grants us eternal life but we must receive and feast on his Body and Blood. So now let us feast on the Crucified and Risen the Lord, the one who grants us eternal life, the one that died for sins. Amen.